November 24, 2012

Hello friends! I just wanted to remind you that there is a big sale happening at TpT on Monday and Tuesday. I am going to shop ‘till I drop! These are units that I have created for your first and second grade classroom. They are high quality, high rigor, and highly fun units! Enjoy, and if you like what you see “follow me”. I’ll be posting 3 new units and having a HUGE give away in December! HUGE give away. H-U-G-E. You won’t want to miss it. 12 winners over 12 days and 1 big granddaddy- call your best friend- I just won the jackpot- winner at the end. It’s big… I think I already said that. You won’t want to miss it, or the fun freebies and classroom mishap stories I post. To read more about each unit click here. To head on over to TpT and fill up your shopping cart, click here.

Happy Shopping!I want to say a special thank you for supporting me. So I also marked down all my multiple user licenses. I know teachers like to share the great stuff they buy, and even split the cost. That's why all my multiple user licenses are on sale for only $2 instead of half the cost of the unit!Happy Team Teaching!

November 23, 2012

Christmas is coming! It's the most wonderful time of year! It can be... Or it can be miserable...

After a lovely Thanksgiving week, our household is off kilter. Naps have been skipped, laundry is piled to the sky, clean laundry is waiting to be folded,

the kitchen is .... well.... a disaster from prepping the dishes we brought to Thanksgiving dinner.

The only thing that could make this worse is to try and decorate while everyone is tired, and the house is clearly not ready to be decorated.

So what did we try to do today?

Yep! We decorated and made cookies!

Here is why...

We ALWAYS decorate the day after Thanksgiving.

We ALWAYS eat Pick Up Stix for dinner.

Then we ALWAYS load up in the car and look at the Christmas lights in our neighborhood.

Always, Always, Always....

"Keep moving Little Soldier. This is what we ALWAYS do."

Does anybody else have an inner Drill Sargent?

Does anybody else have a harsh inner critic that is super hard to please?

I do.

So this is what happened...

We threw ourselves into decorating for Christmas and ignored the reality around us.

We trudged forward, over hurtles, tripping over laundry baskets, and piling on more dishes.

Keep moving Little Soldier...

The Mr. and I began to bicker, and for the 10th year in a row, we put incorrectly put the tree together and the had to start over.

Keep moving Little Solider...

We kept moving until our 5 year old melted into a puddle of tired tears. That's when it hits us.... ummmm maybe this is a bad idea.

Maybe plans have to change.

Maybe I have to adapt traditions to make room for reality.

Maybe, just maybe, I need to tell my inner critic to shut up quiet down.

Maybe I need to take a look around myself and decide what the real priorities are.

I think this year I am going to let go of should, ought to, and always.

I think this year I am going to do what is right for me, my home, and the people in it.

The rest of the world and my own "drill sergeant" will just have to sit tight.

Right now, I'm going to...

fold laundry (so we are not naked tomorrow),

then I'm going to print this blog post, and tape it to the top of our ornament box as a little reminder for next year.

I am going to...

Live in sweet reality over Norman Rockwell-esque ideals.

Put first things first.

Be the best version of myself, instead of the version my inner critic demands.

Being the best version of myself instead of a poor Martha Stewart copycat.

I saw these cookies on Pinterest and feel compelled to add them to today's decoration day. This we can agree was a bad idea. But the cookies were wonderful...They were yummy and easy. But time consuming with all the refrigeration time involved.

Watch your baking time. Mine were done a full 5 minutes before the time written in the recipe.

This is the {link} for how to make them. These cookies are from a darling blog called Our Italian Kitchen.Hop on over. I want to make everything from their blog...after I clean up the kitchen.

November 20, 2012

This is our family tradition for the night before Thanksgiving. It is an easy one, watch the movie, make popcorn and toast and gather jelly beans and pretzels. How's that for an easy dinner? And so nutritious too! Each year I take my son's "feast" picture. He looks so tiny to me in just one year's time!

I hope to carry on this tradition through his childhood and on into his adulthood. Someday he is going to be married. (Wow! That thought takes my breath away!) Realistically speaking, some years he might have to spend Thanksgiving with his in-laws. With this Pre-Thanksgiving tradition in place, he can still spend "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" with us on years when he is away on Thanksgiving Day!Thank you Heather Vernoy for sharing your tradition with me so I could do it with my family! Much love to you Heather!Are you looking forward to sales this weekend? Teacher's Pay Teachers is having a HUGE Cyber Monday (and Tuesday sale)! I am going to shop till I drop! with this code you can get up to 28% off!!!

Everything in my store will be on sale for this Cyber Monday/Tuesday event! If you are looking for some great first and second grade resources, then look no further! Here are some units you are going to love!

For Common Core Informational Reading

You can read an entire blog post about each of these units

by clicking a link at the bottom of this post.

Common Core Nouns Art and Skill Lessons

September, October, and November

December, January, and February

﻿

Nouns: More Than One (mini unit)

Student Booklet & Individual Art Posters.

This printing unit

that will help your student print like Jedi Masters

Your Entire Year of ABC Order

﻿

Vowels Practice and Chicka Chicka Art

﻿

For a Super Hero Adventure

in Learning to Add With Double Digits you need this.

You can read an entire blog post about each of these units by clicking {here}.

I am linking up with my hubby at Writing Pad Dad. He just
started blogging, and is now glued to his laptop. He no longer teases me about
"followers" and "Pinterest". He totally gets it now!His blog is about teaching, family, his witty view on life, and cooking. (Yes, he does the lion's share of cooking. PTL!)He would love some followers! He is a great guy, teacher and an amazing father. He is will crack you up! Read his current blog post about our dog eating an entire birthday cake right before his aunt's birthday party. The picture alone is worth the trip over. Click {here}.

November 15, 2012

This little trick makes your mashed potatoes creamy, thick, but not claggy. I don't think claggy is a real word, but in our household it means yucky, gummy, and the bad kind of thick. No one wants claggy mashed potatoes. Here is how Paula Deen taught me to avoid the "clag".

Start your potatoes in cold water, bring to a boil, and then drain. Set off to the side.

(Sorry about the shouting, but Thanksgiving dishes are panic inducing.)

This is my potato trick. I use the pot I boiled the potatoes in to warm the cream, butter, salt, and pepper mixure. Then, I use this same pot for the mashing! That trick just saved me from washing an extra pot and an extra mixing bowl.

Do you hear angels singing? Because I do. Two less things to wash and perfect potatoes!

﻿

Dump the potatoes back into the pot with the warmed cream, butter, and seasonings. Mash them up.﻿

At this point, I add the sour cream and adjust the seasonings. Sometimes I have to add just a splash more milk if the mixture seems to tight, but that little splash of cold milk won't cause any "clag". I hope this "same pot method" comes in handy with your own recipe for mashed potatoes!

I pray that this is your best Thanksgiving ever! God bless you dear friend!

To hop back on the recipe train click here to return to the First Grade and Fabulous linky party!

November 12, 2012

Hello Sight Word Enthusiasts! Welcome to my first linky party!
[Cue D.J. playing music- everyone is laughing and having fun.] I hope you are able to find some fantastic ideas and resources here! Please feel free to join us on this linky.

I offer you a game... I play this with my 6 year old son and my first grade students. It was orginally called OH NO! The game OH NO! came from my teacher friend Mer. Where she got .... who knows?

I call this little variation:

Wild About Reading

and

Wild about Sight Words

Here is how to play: Using the download, write out the sight words that are a struggle

or sight words from your current list.

Place cards in a container, and take turns drawing and reading the cards.

I place cards from the old lists into the container so that he stays sharp on those too.

His teacher provides cards for the kids. Thanks Mrs W!

If you can read the card(s), then you keep them. Here are our two piles.

Follow directions on the “Character” cards and have fun!When the character card says “take”, then you take that number from the container and try to read them. You keep what you can read.If it says “put back”, you must put 2 cards back into the container.

November 11, 2012

I love to do art, but it can be a challenge when kids don't listen to the instructions, or they rush ahead thinking they know what to do. So, during art, students don't do anything until I say, " Do this now." Art in my class goes something like this...

Me: Hey guys, for writing today, we are going to start with Art!
Kids: Collective screaming and someone falls out of their chair because they are so excited!. Me: OK friends, what is is magic phrase?
Kids: "Do this now."Me: What happens when I give instructions?
Kids: We listen or we sit out for art. (Nobody actually sits out, but since they don't want to miss art, they follow directions.)Me: When do you move?
Kids: When you say the magic words, "Do this now."

Then, I pretend I can't hear them and say, "What?" 5 million times until they are screaming, "Do this now", and laughing, and beoming too exhausted to not follow directions.

Me: Take out your scissors (pregnant pause) They lean in with anticipation..... the suspense grows.....Me: Do this now....Kids: Nobody speaks, they take out their scissors, and then look to me for the next direction and the magic words that follow.

﻿Art that entails a skunk, glue, and cotton balls does not work if the kids are out of control.

"Do this now" saves the day every time.

By the way, if you love the art, you can get it for a great price. All of this art comes with my unit. The unit also has 11 differentiated fluency passages about mammals, 50 pages of Common Core fun, and 5 assessments!

But none of this art would be fun, if the kids were not under themagical spell of the magical phrase

"Do this now."

It has made such a difference for me. I hope it works for you. I am dying to know, how do you make art run more smoothly in your class?

Thank you Hadar for setting up this linky! I can't wait to learn some new teacher tricks. Click on Hadar's name to go back to her blog and read more wonderful ideas!﻿

November 9, 2012

I am gearing up to teach one of my favorite units! I have made it available to you on TpT !

Last year, I added a fluency component so that my students could build their reading skills while learning Science. Last week, I differentiated the passages so that I have pages for high and low readers. They look so similar that students won’t know the difference! I love teaching about mammals using fluency passages! My students are thrilled to take them home and show off their skills and knowledge! Because the students, read and reread them, their reading skill soar!

Here are the Titles of the Fluency Passages:

What is a mammal?

Dolphins are mammals too?

Beavers

Being Nocturnal

Raccoons

Opossums

Porcupines

Skunks

Preparing for winter in the woods

Migration

Hibernation

My students LoVeD the fluency passages last year. So this year, I have added over 50 pages of Common Core practice, and 5 new art projects!

This can be displayed on your bulletin Board as an anchor chart and as your “Posting” of the Common Core Standard.This is a sample of the student page. All of my art has an academic component that goes either directly onto the art or next to the art on the bulletin board.

Raccoon Art

Academic Component: write your favorite fact

Skunk

Academic Component: mini booklet called “I’m Warning You!”

Porcupine Place Value

Academic Component – Ones and tens / Ones, tens, and hundreds

Here is a glimpse of the booklet pages inside the Place Value Porcupine.

I love the assessments that go with this unit. The tests are differentiated as well! In 2 weeks, I can FILL my grade book, and that makes me happy!

I go back to work in 1 week, so I am using this week to make bulletin board titles, and do some early Christmas shopping! Tis the Season. I can’t wait to go back to work and to have engaging lessons to pull the students out of their Santa Stupors. It seems like as soon as Target puts up Christmas trees, my students go brain dead and get silly. But this unit is going to do the trick to keep them engaged, learning, and behaving like “Super Students” not like kids on the “Naughty List”.